On 1/3/2018, Microsoft released an out-of-band security update for Windows. After applying the Windows security update, users may experience this issue with the SEP system tray icon. This issue is not related to the ERASER Engine update released by Symantec on 1/4/2018 (version 117.3.0).

Important Note: The system tray icon described in this article does not impact product protection functionality. Users of the Symantec Endpoint Protection client remain fully protected, even if they experience this issue.

Resolution:

Microsoft has released an update for Windows which will resolve the issue, which addresses an underlying issue which was the cause of this problem. The problem can be addressed by applying one of the following updates:

Windows Server 2016 – KB4057142

Windows Server 2012 R2 – KB4057401

Windows Server 2012 – KB4057402

Windows 10 1709 (64-bit) – KB4073290

Windows 10 1709 (32-bit) – KB4073291

Windows 10 1703 – KB4057144

Windows 10 1607 – KB4057142

Windows 8.1 – KB4057401

Note:This document previously made mention of hotfix builds for SEP 12.1 and 14.0 which would resolve the issue. As Microsoft has released a fix, Symantec engineering has withdrawn these hotfix builds. Customers who previously downloaded and applied these builds need not take additional action. Symantec will continue to support these builds.